Picturing America-
First of all, in case you are unfamiliar with the Picturing Americaprogram, it is a new initiative from the National Endowment for the Humanities which brings masterpieces of American art into classrooms and libraries nationwide. The website contains a gallery of these seminal works of art plus background information and teacher resources. Be sure to check these resources out!

Digital Storytelling- is a form of multimedia created with still photos with narration, music, text, effects, etc. These digital stories can be edited together using a variety of software packages such as:
Microsoft PhotoStory
Windows MovieMaker
I- Movie
and web tools like:
Animoto
This link takes you to the Animoto website: Animoto for Education
Here is a link to an animoto show created by teacher Jon Oliver created using the Paul Revere images from Picturing America to create the advertisement for Paul that he wished he could have had.
Paul Revere Animoto Ad
Read Jon's comments about his experience with Picturing America and Animoto. I think they give some worthwhile information about the thought process he went through when creating this resource.

And here is my own attempt at an Animoto about John Roebling's bridges:


How to Create Digital Stories- Creating digital stories involves the same steps of pre-production, production, and post-production that full motion video production does. Check out pages A. B. and C. of this wiki to review these steps and find tools you can use.

Here is a wonderful tutorial on video production on KET Teacher Domain which uses the subject of bridges as the theme:
Learning Through Video Production

Here are examples of the pre-production tools specifically used during creating the stories for this Picturing America project.

Pre-Production Example:
Shrine to Modernity PhotoStory Storyboard

Shrine_to_Modernity_storyboard1.jpg

For the whole storyboard (3 pages) click here:

PhotoStory Tutorial: This link takes you to a great online tutorial about using Microsoft PhotoStory.
Photostory Tutorial
Here is a link to a wikipage developed by Dr. Ellen Maddin of Northern Kentucky University, which has several planning and informational documents on digital storytelling, including a set of instructions for students on using PhotoStory.
Telling Digi-Tales

Here are the images from the Picturing America Collection that I used in my digital stories:

Joseph Stella (1877–1946), Brooklyn Bridge, c. 1919–1920.
Oil on canvas, 84 x 76 in. Yale University Art Gallery,
New Haven, C.T. Gift of Collection Societe Anonyme.
(photo image) Walker Evans (American, 1903–1975),
[Brooklyn Bridge, New York], 1929, printed ca. 1970,
© The Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
JS_Brooklyn_Bridge_painting_picturingamerica.neh.JPG
WE_Brooklyn_Bridge_picturingamerica.neh.JPG

Below are some links to some wonderful videos from Discovery Education accessed through KET EncycloMedia
both with sections about the history of the Brooklyn Bridge. The one called "New York Up Close" has the "editable" copyright permission attached so if you wanted to mix it with some of your own content, you could legally.
New York Up Close: Modern New York City
Building Big with David Macaulay: Bridges
New York Up Close
Building Bridges: David McCaulay